“Holy Sense of Humor”
Matthew 21:1-11
Matthew 23:1-12
First Presbyterian Church
The Reverend Donald E. Ray
March 16, 2008
Passion/Palm Sunday
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I really don’t
have this retirement thing figured out. One of the rules I’ve been told
is; learn to say “NO.” I not only haven’t figured that out, I say
“Yes” before I’m even asked.
Gratified with the
success of “Five Poems for Lent,” Tom said a few weeks ago he had been
thinking about “Four Poems for Holy Week,” asking if that would work for me
since I was scheduled for Holy Thursday. I said, “Sure, I could do
that.” I don’t know what I was thinking. Then, he acknowledged
the problem would be that he would have three poems to do. Always ready to help
a friend and colleague, I volunteered I could take Palm Sunday also, making it
two each.
Now really, what was
I thinking?? I, never having written more than a few silly, rhyming
limericks in all my days, now had two poems to write in a month. My saving
grace was a trip to the
It’s been said
that a poem isn’t a poem until it is read, which I assume implies heard; here
is my effort.
"At the
Passion Play"
Hosanna, Hosanna, cheers
the crowd by the path
Praise to you, Son of David, they cry;
Palm fronds they spread on the road,
Even their robes they lay o’er the dust.
Someone of note must be on the way!
Please save! Hosanna! Save us now!
Come warrior to release us from slavery.
A white steed must signal the bravery,
With regal robes flying as they gallop by;
A one so acclaimed this day!
But who is this who comes riding an ass,
Who jostles and bounces as he doth pass?
Who so intrudes on their cries of praise?
Who mocks the crowd as they palm branches wave?
Let him be gone—make way.
Hosanna! Ho Ho Hosanna Ho Ho Ho;
Hosanna! Ho Ho Hosanna! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.
Praise dissolves in laughter unrestrained;
Cheers turn to guffaws at this parody of reign.
Hilarity erupts at such vision this day.
It is the Lord! ‘Tis the Son of David!
Royal trappings doth he disdain.
He mocks the pomp, pushes title aside;
A donkey as mount he chooses to ride.
Kin would he be with those ‘long the way.
Their laughter he prizes for laughter they need.
Body and mind in laughter made whole;
Humor as balm for the health of the soul;
The sham of pomp he would have us see.
An ass he doth ride, he will any day.
Don Ray,
Palm Sunday, 2008
The inspiration for
this poem is a Passion Play performed by a church near my home in
Then, a grown man
appears from a grove of trees, bouncing and jostling on the back of a donkey.
I have seen the play four or five times, I can picture that scene in my mind
now, and never have I been able to restrain my laughter.
I often find myself
wondering why a particular story is included in a Gospel. John affirms
that were everything about Jesus written, no library could contain the books.
So why out of all that material, did the writer or writers choose to include any
given tale. I assume the selection was purposeful so then I guess,
sometimes stretching the imagination, as to what that purpose might have been.
Palm Sunday is a
travesty. Jesus riding a donkey is a laughable image. Matthew even
describes it as his riding both the ass and its colt. I and many are still
puzzling that picture. Crowds that day shouted praises—within the week
they called for Jesus’ execution. Why is its story included?
Surely, there are a
number of possible reasons but one I think is that in God, there is a sense of
humor. Not the kind of humor that disrespects nor takes advantage of
tragic errors, but the kind that strikes us as humorous because it disrupts our
expectations. Then it sets us up for a different way of looking at things.
The setting of this
story is a tense time in
Because of my
experience working in health care, I am not a fan of hospital dramas. But one of
my favorite movies is “Patch Adams.” A medical student interning under the
tutelage of a stern, egotistical senior physician, Patch is concerned that
patients are losing their identity behind case diagnoses and treatment plans.
Patch does a Jesus
thing. He begins visiting children in the cancer wing wearing a red sponge
clown nose; he skates into the ward with his feet in bedpans; he blows up rubber
gloves to make funny balloon caricatures. Forlorn children begin to laugh,
curmudgeon patients and staff smile and are more congenial, and people get
better or at the least deal better with being sick.
Under the threat of
censure, Patch continues because he sees the difference it makes in the people
he cares for. Unable to make much change in the system and at increasing
odds with his professor, Patch recruits a few of his colleagues and puts his
career on the line by opening a clinic where they can care for the persons whose
needs are not met in traditional health care delivery. When a beloved
fellow student is murdered by a deranged patient, Patch is devastated and drops
out of his dream. But by this time, his colleagues are so hooked that they
rally to support him through his grief and they challenge Patch until he is
recaptured by his vision and returns to the clinic.
With the comical
image of Jesus bouncing along on a donkey fresh in our minds, Matthew tells us
of Jesus taking the Pharisees to task for making faith harder than it ought to
be; for taking them selves too seriously doing deeds for image; wearing their
phylacteries broad and their fringes long; claiming the best seats in their
gatherings, demanding to be addressed with impressive titles.
This past Thursday
in our “Aging and Sagging” group; I call it “aging and sagging” because
if think I am “saging,” getting
wiser, I risk becoming a little too pompous. Back to my point; in this
week’s chapter of Martin’s translation of the Tao Te Ching we read;
“Seeking to look
attractive creates blindness.
Seeking to sound
impressive creates deafness.
Seeking to please
all creates tastelessness.
Seeking to control
creates thoughtlessness.
Seeking to protect
dreams creates heartlessness.” (1)
I recognize that
there are portions of the Gospels that bear the mark of the later church in
their writing. There are some parts that may have little if any basis in
actual events in Jesus life or his speaking. But the story of him riding
into
If Jesus rode into
the seat of power on a donkey, maybe it’s the way to go. Perhaps Matthew
is telling us that Jesus rode the donkey and he brought the colt along as an
invitation for others to ride with him. In the realm of religion,
education, social circles, politics, business, world affairs; when things became
tense, if someone let their ego deflate a little and regained a sense of humor,
what difference it might make in a volatile situation. I am not for a
moment suggesting that we make fun of one’s adversaries or be insensitive to
the gravity of a serious situation. Jesus put himself on the line, made
himself the object of laughter to diffuse a potentially dangerous situation by
creating a whole different way of looking at leadership. Jesus was saying
I’d rather have a good laugh with the people, even if it means dying on a
cross, than die on the point of a Roman spear to perpetuate fighting and
warring.
Palm Sunday is the
church’s story. Our history is far too cluttered with broad phylacteries
and long fringes, stilted titles and creating heavy burdens. To be at the
crossroads of Christ and community, today is the day for a donkey ride.
It’s time to be laughed at, and to laugh with as we dismount from the
self-conscious image of our culture, to ride in the love, joy and peace that is
trusting in God.
In words we will
savor again in a moment:
“Ride on in
triumph; Lord, behold we lay our passions, lusts, and proud wills in Thy way!”
(2)
I’d
like to think there was enough wisdom and sensitivity on the part of the church
Fathers to realize that between the somber forty plus days of Lent and
remembering the agony of Good Friday, we need to laugh. As we picture
Jesus riding a donkey, we can laugh as we see how all the pomp and circumstance
of our culture falls short of one who restores our humanity by sharing in our
burdens.
If we don’t take
Palm Sunday too seriously; if we don’t take ourselves too seriously, we can
get God’s sense of humor. I considered hiring a donkey and riding it up
the aisle in the procession this morning, but fortunately that momentary
insanity passed. Besides, that would be unfair since the poem should be
adequate to stir the image in your mind.
Amid the Palms
today, can you picture Jesus?
An ass he doth ride,
he will any day.
Amen.
(2)
“Draw Nigh to
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